Like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
by December Ice Star
Summary: Sipping the tea, his stormy eyes stopped on the leaf of bread sitting on the counter. They didn't have enough money to buy in the bakery but he knew where it came from. Katniss/Gale Katniss/Peeta


**Like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette**

* * *

Gale rolled off the bed and started picking his clothes up from the floor. The woman lying in the run-down mattress was fast asleep, her long brown hair fanned around her head. He didn't bother in waking her up. She already knew he would be gone by morning.

He left some money in the table and left. It was around five in the morning and the streets were empty in the Seam. Not everyone was sleeping, though. Men were already getting on their way to the mines. Gale was going to pick up his working boots from his house before going himself.

His small house was near the meadow. The lock of the front door was broken but they had nothing worth stealing. He pushed the door opened quietly and made his way into the kitchen. As usual, his breakfast was already sitting on the table, the tea steaming. Hushed voices came from the bedroom; the kids were awake but would stay in bed for another solid hour. Sipping the tea, his stormy eyes stopped on the leaf of bread sitting on the counter. They didn't have enough money to buy in the bakery but he knew where it came from.

Glaring at the offending item, he dumped the rest of his tea down the sink and grabbed the bread. It was still warm, the baker must have brought it early, before anyone was out to see him leave his store and make his way to the Seam. At least he had the decency to not sleep in Gale's bed. The miner considered briefly throwing it out the window, but she would know he did it and it wasn't as if food were a constant in their house.

Shaking his head, he dropped the loaf and patted his pockets, looking for the money he had left from pay day. He took all the money still in his pocket and left it next to the baked good. Rose's birthday was coming and he thought she would have enough money to buy a ribbon for her hair. She wouldn't be around much longer; she was engaged with Rockwood but wouldn't marry for at least another two years.

As much as Gale despised the pompous butcher's boy, he had money and his daughter would never have to suffer through cold winters again. She would always have meat on the table and enough money to buy a cake everyday if so she desired. For some time, he had feared she would live the same life he did, when he saw her walking around with the Green's kid. He was a nice, handsome boy always with a smile on his lips and a helping hand, but he'd never give her daughter everything that Town clown could give her. However, when the Hawthorn-Rockwood wedding was announced, they stopped hanging around together and stayed away from each other.

It was the best for both of them, he had thought, until he saw Rose get up every morning with puffy red eyes and a defeated look on her light grey eyes. She was barely eighteen and had already given up.

* * *

His muscles complained when he made his way up the mines, coal coating his olive skin and making his eyes sting. Slowly, he forced his abused muscles to start the way back to his house. When he arrived, however, things were not quite as he expected.

He knew she was cheating on him. It wasn't something new. They had made a deal when they fought and yelled more than they kissed and apologized. He could go with whoever he wanted, she would not interfere, and all she asked is for the woman to never set foot on the house, for the children's sake. She would be able to take someone into the house, so long it was in school hours and the kids never found out. They had even shaken hands after settling the business. It was for the better, he said. I know, she answered. She knew who his lover was and he knew who was hers.

He was rather surprised when he saw the loaves of bread sitting quietly on the counter, he didn't ask about her but he knew. The perfect man, the perfect husband, the perfect father, was fucking someone else's wife while his own wife sat dutifully on the apartment above the bakery, taking care of a toddler. Oh, the irony. The man looked absolutely guilty after the first loaf appeared on the Hawthorns' kitchen. He had bags under his eyes and his mouth was set in a grim line. Gale really couldn't care less about the arrangement Mellark had with Katniss, but a few weeks later another loaf appeared and this time the skin under his eyes looked as smooth as ever.

Gale was early that afternoon. It was extremely unusual for them to be let out early but he was at least three hours sooner. He approached his front door but he stopped at what he heard.

"Katniss, you can't expect for me to just watch another man raise my kid!" Mellark's voice was angry and hard, something Gale had never heard before.

"Well, what do you want to do, uh? Oh, I know! Maybe you'll leave your wife and I'll leave my husband and we can get married and live happily ever after!"

"Damn it Katniss-"

"No! Don't you see this is hard for me as well?" Her voice broke. "Don't you think it is hard for me as well to see you with your wife? It hurts, it hurts so much, but it would be worse if I didn't love you." Her sobs echoed in the wooden shack.

"Oh, Kat, what are we going to do?" He heard the shuffling of clothes and through a crack in the window saw the baker wrap his arms around the sobbing woman.

He didn't listen any longer but wasn't surprised when she informed him of her pregnancy. And when she gave birth to a blonde girl with bright blue eyes, he felt nothing; he had given up a long time ago.


End file.
